Damp, draughts, smells, noise and the other slow annoyances.
284 guides in Home & DIY
Sometimes, and it depends on which appliance and how hard you will work it. Where the manufacturer cuts cost, which categories punish it, and the specific point above which extra money stops buying durability.
Reading the warning signs on a garden or boundary wall, the difference between an old lean and an active one, and when this stops being a DIY question.
What to do in the first hour, how to tell plasterboard that will recover from plasterboard that will not, and the tests that decide between drying out, patching and taking the ceiling down.
Reading the height, shape, edge and salt fringe of a damp mark, and what each of those four pieces of evidence rules in or out.
A flood warning means flooding is expected, usually within hours. There is a fixed order to the preparation, and the last item on the list is always be ready to leave.
The compatibility mechanism behind LED dimming — leading versus trailing edge, minimum and maximum load, and dimmable drivers — so you can predict whether a combination will work before you buy it.
The four causes of a tingle from taps, sinks, radiators or an appliance case, why none of them is acceptable, and what to do in what order.
The six reasons a trapping programme stalls — placement, density, an open entry route, an unnoticed food source, trap shyness, and a population bigger than the plan.
How to find the defect behind penetrating damp, why it is nearly always on the weather elevation, and the order to check things in during and after a downpour.
Telling condensation on a cold ceiling from a genuine leak from above, and what each one requires.
A suspended timber floor is kept dry by air moving through the void beneath it. A musty smell means that air has stopped moving, and the fix is nearly always outside the house rather than inside.
The kitchen-volume calculation, the derating for real ducting that the box figure ignores, and how it relates to the Building Regulations minimum.
A burning smell from electrical equipment is one of the very few household smells that means act now. There is a short, ordered response and then it becomes an electrician's job, not yours.
Footstep noise is impact noise, and it enters the structure rather than travelling through the air. The order of things that actually reduce it, and the three leaks that undo the work.
A fan that will not stop is usually a humidity sensor set too sensitive for the room, or a timer doing exactly what it was set to do.
Tracing a washing machine leak to the hose, the door seal, the detergent drawer or the pump filter.
The trade body memberships that mean something, the questions that separate a treatment from a solution, and where the cost falls between landlord, tenant and council.
Keeping heat out during the day and letting it out at night — the opposite of what most people do.
Every part inside a modern cistern, what each one does, and which complaint each one causes — so a vague fault becomes a named part.
Realistic UK service lives by appliance type, what actually ends each one, and the maintenance and usage habits that make the difference between the bottom and the top of each range.
The pattern, position and timing tests that separate a roof leak from condensation forming inside the roof space, and what each one needs doing about it.
The relative humidity bands that matter for a UK home, where and when to take a reading so it means something, and why the room figure understates what is happening in the corners.
The five routes by which water gets around an intact damp proof course, why every one of them looks exactly like rising damp, and how to check for each.
Checking whether it is only your house, keeping food and warmth, and the preparation that makes it a non-event.
Material properties, comparisons and suitability — paints, fillers, sealants, timber, tile, insulation.